KSPS-TV

KSPS-TV
Spokane, Washington
Channels Digital: 7 (VHF)
Affiliations PBS
Owner Spokane Public Schools
(Spokane School District #81)
First air date April 24, 1967
Call letters' meaning Spokane Public Schools
Former channel number(s) Analog:
7 (VHF, 1967-2009)
Former affiliations NET (1967-1970)
Transmitter power 21.6 kW
Height 558 m
Facility ID 61956
Website www.ksps.org

KSPS-TV, digital channel 7, is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television station in Spokane, Washington. It also has significant viewership in the province of Alberta, Canada, including the cities of Edmonton and Calgary. The station broadcasts its main signal from its site at Krell Hill, a.k.a. "Tower Mountain".

Contents

History

The station first signed on the air on April 24, 1967 from the basement of Spokane Public Schools' Adams Elementary. A series of school levy failures in the early 1970s forced the station to secure alternate funding through other sources, and in 1972, Friends of Seven (now known as Friends of KSPS) was founded to provide financial support to KSPS.

Programming

KSPS provides a mix of diverse programing from PBS and local sources, as well as instructional programming. The station's main signal reaches parts of Washington and Idaho, and it operates a large translator network covering parts of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. It is also carried on cable in parts of British Columbia and Alberta, and on satellite systems across western Canada.

The majority of the station's donations from pledge drives come from Calgary and Edmonton, and most of the station's members are from those two cities. Calgary and Edmonton each have populations which are more than double the entire population of KSPS's American coverage area. It is one of five local Spokane TV stations seen in Canada on the Shaw Direct satellite provider.

It was the first station to carry Mary Ann Wilson's Sit and Be Fit program.

Tower Collapse

On November 29, 2006, at approximately 2:50 AM Pacific Standard Time, the top 200 feet (60 meters) of the station's antenna at the Krell Hill transmission site collapsed, disrupting its off-air signal. The circumstances regarding the tower collapse are unknown. An engineering crew is surveying the site and the structure to determine the cause of the collapse, and if there is any way to save the tower. Other area television broadcasters, as well as Comcast cable, have promised to lend short-term support in the event the tower is unsalvageable.

Cable and satellite feeds in the US and Canada were not affected, as fiber is used to transmit its signal to the headends. It is unclear if service via low-power repeaters has been affected.[1]

Digital television

The station's over the air digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Channel Name Programming Cable Channel
7.1 KSPS-TV Main KSPS programming / PBS HD Comcast 107
Dish Network 7
DirecTV 7
7.2 KSPS-DT 2 PBS World Comcast 108
Not available on Dish Network and DirecTV.
7.3 KSPS-DT 3 Create Comcast 109
Not available on Dish Network and DirecTV.

Translators

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

KSPS-TV is reabroadcasted on the following translators.[2] Some of the translators on this list confirmed on the KSPS-TV website does not have any known FCC data. There is also additional translators that also rebroadcast KSPS-TV that is not on the list of translators at the KSPS-TV website and that they are listed on the Rabbitears website under the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Idaho

Montana

Oregon

Washington

External links

References